The Old & The New Traditions of Modern Chinese

During my last visit to the home town of mainland China, I have an opportunity to meet and to conduct a funeral ceremony for a deceased who the family members are born after the 1980s. The bereaved family members are staying in a modern apartment and the ceremony is held at the downstair with approximately a car space like pathway.

The bereaved family members believe that ancestor worship is a religious practice. The act is a way to respect and to provide for a deceased welfare in the afterlife, which is envisioned as being similar to the earthly life. Rituals are performed to transmute and absolve the sufferings of a deceased. Taoist priests are required to perform a repent prayer so as to offer a deceased the quest for spiritual enlightenment.

However, the bereaved family members did not agree that to engage a group of musicians to make lavish noise while transporting a deceased body to the crematorium so as to chase away evil or negative influence. At most, they call it a show time.

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